Hyundai Launches New Safety Feature To Prevent Drivers From Leaving Their Children In The Car

Hyundai Motor today announced the introduction of a new safety feature called the Rear Occupant Alert system.

The system, which will be offered in 2019 model year Hyundai vehicles, monitors the rear seats using an ultrasonic sensor that helps to detect the movements of rear seat occupants, especially children.

How the Rear Occupant Alert system works is that it reminds drivers to check the rear seats when exiting the vehicle with a message displayed on the center instrument cluster screen.

And if the system detects movement in the rear seats after the driver leaves the vehicle, it will honk the horn, flash the headlights and send a Blue Link alert to the driver’s smartphone via Hyundai’s Blue Link connected car system.

According to Hyundai, the main aim of the new safety system is to prevent the rising number of tragedies which involve children being forgotten in the car, and kids accidentally locking themselves in a car.

It is reported that 38 children have died from heatstroke in hot cars in the United States this year itself, and more than 800 children have died from heat-related illnesses in vehicles since 1994.

Out of the 800, 55 percent of these cases were caused by parents who were unaware that their child was even in the vehicle.

Experts say it only takes minutes before heat can overwhelm a child’s ability to regulate his or her internal temperature, and that their core temperature can increase three to five times faster than that of an adult.

Even in Malaysia, there have been many similar cases especially over the past couple of years, and although all that is needed to prevent this is some common sense, we welcome Hyundai's effort and hope that our market will get the new Rear Occupant Alert System as well.